More online theory awesomeness

I was looking around for online music theory games and found the mother load!!  MusicTechTeacher.com has a huge list full of music theory, ear training, music history and more.  It appears to be the brainchild of a music teacher in Alabama, and it is a wonder.  I suggest going to the quiz page and checking out all there is, but I looked through and found a few that I know will be perfect for my almost 6 year old (tomorrow - aahh!!!!).  They are all great, but these were some I found that would work well for WonderGirl:

• Treble Word Match
• Treble Louis Armstrong Story
• Find the Missing Note Beethoven Game
• Treble Word Warrior
• Treble Spaces Game
• Bass Word Warrior
• Bone Up on the Bass Clef Quiz
• Bass Clef Ledger Lines Quiz
• Treble Clef Ledger Lines Quiz
• Identify the Music Notes
• Identify the Key Signature Quiz
• Skips, Steps and Repeats Quiz
• Music Terms Hangman Game

Music theory on the web

Is there anything Pinterest cannot do??  I've found the most amazing recipes, activities for my kids and so much more - and now I'm finding some really fantastic music education gems!  I saw a link to the The Music Interactive and was amazed at the games they have - most of them for free!  There is a note name recognition that was cute and simple enough that my five-year-old had a blast playing it.

A rhythm matching game for strengthening those ears -again, very accessible for my kindergartner and up.

A note recognition game called Staff Wars that was tricky enough that it pushed me to my limit (I made it to level 7 :)

Rhythm math:

And a ton more!  You'll need to register on their forum, but then you can then download the games to your own computer for any time fun. I also found this site that has some of them - plus others - web-based and ready to play now.  I've seen and played with a lot of music theory computer games and these are absolutely fabulous!

Emergency musical intervention

I sewed these up for us to wear for the 4th from 2 tees!

Have you been having a lovely summer?  We were - and still are, except for an unwelcome visitor this week in the form of a cold for the poor 1 year old Dude.  I had to come home from a play group this  morning because of his hysterics - and it was just across the street!

When we got home, I knew I had one of two choices - turn on Nick Jr. or try to find something he wouldn't scream at.  I got out my trusty laptop and opened this page I'd pinned into my Kid-y board on Pinterest (are you on Pinterest??  I want to follow you!!!):

http://counting-on-me.blogspot.com/2011/05/101-things-to-do-with-your-toddler.html

While he rolled on the floor screaming, I scrolled down as fast as I could and spotted this gem:

36. Bang on Pots and Pans with a spoon

I ran to the pantry, grabbed some pots and utensils, put them in the living room and waited.  It was about 3 seconds until the air was filled with a cacophony I far prefer to tantrums.

I grabbed some utensils of different materials and watched them experiment with the sounds.

Then they got clever and tried some of their own...

What about a truck, or a train whistle?

What about 3 different spoons they use regularly? (WonderGirl grabbed these from the drawer on her own!)

What about a hippo flashlight?

Or a puppy?  (the nose is plastic so that was a neat surprise for the Dude)

What about just using your hands?

WG put them in order of smallest to largest and tested out the pitches that way.

What about stomping with your feet??  (I only let that fly for a minute or so :)

And magically - I finally saw this again:

SprocketWorks.com

We watch PBS almost every day (Sesame Street is the 6th food group!) and they advertise their website constantly, so of course my VERY suggestible daughter is always begging to go to pbskids.org.  It's a fun website, and a great motivational tool.  I like to try and find kids music websites she'll like and I found a GEM the other day.  Have you heard of sprocketworks.com?  Wowza!!  It's a fabulous website chock full of educational games and information - from space to history to science - and a really nifty section on music!

There are ear training games, name that instrument or style games, music history time lines with music that plays when you scroll over the composer names, a music term glossary - and it's all kid friendly!  Last night when we found the game for writing music, WonderGirl HAD to figure out how to write the theme to the Cat in the Hat show.

We were playing around with pitches, note length - it was a music parent's dream activity!  It's all mouse based, so she can search around on her own, but I liked doing it with her so I could expound on all the things she saw.  We searched the whole music category and had a blast, and now she's just itching to get into the space menu and build a satellite (that'll be her treat today after she practices piano).  It did say I needed to update my Shockwave , but was very easy and quick.  Go check out sprocketworks.com and have fun!